2027: Nigeria’s opposition parties consider single-term presidency, 4-year transition ‘national reset’

By KEMI KASUMU and OUR REPORTER, Ibadan

“We are not promoting any candidate, no preference among the six parties in this hall, and nothing to gain from one of you rather than another. Our only interest is the one stated in the Doctrine we published on August 2: that a democracy is sustained not merely by holding elections, but by the credible possibility of an alternative government,” he said.

The G-100 has proposed a Government of National Competence anchored on a single four-year transition term, as part of a broader framework for cooperation among Nigeria’s opposition political parties.

This was contained in opening remarks delivered on behalf of the G-100 by Mallam Salihu Mohammed Lukman at the Summit of Nigeria’s Opposition Political Parties held today at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, and attended by representatives of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP), alongside their presidential and vice-presidential candidates, and the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives.

As the event got underway, only the presidential candidates of the Social Democratic Party SDP, Prince Adebayo Adewole; his counterpart in the People’s Redemption Party PRP, Donald Duke; vice presidential candidate of the Allied People’s Movement APM, Lawal Daura, were present.

Candidates of the ADC, Atiku Abubakar and NDC, Peter Obi were still being expected,vit was gathered.

Lukman said the proposed government would be built on competence, integrity, national inclusion and fair representation of every party contributing to the effort, and would be bound to a disciplined, time-bound Four-Year National Reset Programme.

“The Framework before you propose something more demanding than a merger of ambitions: a Government of National Competence, built on competence, integrity, national inclusion, and fair representation of every party that contributes to the effort,” he said, adding that such a government should be “secured by a political commitment to a single four-year term, written into an enforceable Transition Charter.”

He stressed that the commitment must go beyond verbal assurances. “We want to underline the word ‘enforceable.’ This gathering does not need more sincerity. Nigerian politics has never suffered from a shortage of sincere promises. What it has suffered from is promises that nobody could enforce when the person who made them changed his/her mind,” he said, insisting that any agreement reached “must be written, it must be witnessed, and it must have consequences.”

Tracing the history of opposition politics since 1999, Lukman recalled that the opposition contested the presidency divided in 2003, 2007 and 2011, but achieved victory in 2015 after parties agreed on rules of engagement ahead of determining candidates. He said that discipline was abandoned in 2023, when opposition votes were split among candidates who jointly polled more than the winner.

“The winner took just under nine million votes. One opposition candidate took close to seven million. Another took just over six million. Thirteen million votes on one side of the argument, under nine million on the other. And the side with fewer votes formed the government, lawfully, constitutionally, and entirely predictably,” he said, describing the outcome as self-inflicted rather than a conspiracy.

On the structure of the proposed cooperation, Lukman disclosed that three standing coalition bodies are being proposed: a Central Leadership Committee comprising national chairmen, national secretaries and presidential and vice-presidential candidates to provide political direction; a Publicity and Communication Committee to coordinate joint messaging; and a Legal Committee to handle legal strategy and coalition-related advice. Politics

He said the G100 would participate in these structures only as facilitators and observers, subject to the parties’ approval.

He further disclosed that five Working Groups, each comprising one representative from every participating party, are to be established to produce working papers within four weeks on a National Covenant for Democratic Renewal, a Single-Term Transition Charter, a National Reform Programme, a Framework for Opposition Unity, and a Roadmap to a Common Presidential Candidate. According to him, these documents are to be presented to a Second Summit for consideration and adoption.

Lukman clarified that the Summit was not asking any party to dissolve, merge into another, or produce a presidential candidate on the day.

“It is not asking any party to dissolve. It is not asking any party to disappear into another party. It is not asking any candidate to stand down this morning… That question is not on the agenda of this Summit, and any report that says otherwise will be wrong,” he said, adding that what was being sought was authorisation to build “the table” before negotiating “the seats” around it.

He urged party leaders attending the summit to approach the process with candour, sequence and sacrifice, warning that concealed positions or premature focus on outcomes had undermined previous coalition efforts.

“A hard line declared this morning is a problem that can be solved between now and the Second Summit. A hard line concealed this morning is a coalition that collapses in October, and that one will collapse in public too, only later, and at far greater cost to everybody in this room,” he said.

Lukman said the G100, working with the Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives, convened the summit without backing any particular candidate or party.

“We are not promoting any candidate, no preference among the six parties in this hall, and nothing to gain from one of you rather than another.

“Our only interest is the one stated in the Doctrine we published on August 2: that a democracy is sustained not merely by holding elections, but by the credible possibility of an alternative government,” he said.

He invoked the everyday hardships of Nigerians as the justification for the process, citing a woman in Kaduna who withdrew her child from school over rising fees, a farmer in Benue displaced from his land, and a graduate in Aba who has given up job hunting.

“They are entitled to something, and it is this: a real choice, presented by serious people, capable of governing. That is all a democratic opposition owes its country, and it is not a small debt,” he said.